Short Film Form Research

How do we define Short film?

A short film is typically anything up to 35mins in length. This is the main difference from feature length films, which are over an hour in length but recently are starting to be around the two-hour mark. It’s not hard to see that feature length films are the superior of the two and are more popular. As a result of this, it is usually easier to watch a feature length film opposed to a short film. Another major aspect of short films is that they are experimental. In traditional feature length films, the money put in is high, therefore the risk of loss is high too. As a result feature lengths usually follow codes and conventions of which they know will make money. Short films on the other hand do not follow set codes and conventions and are known for being very experimental. As a result it allows you to push the boundaries which you wouldnt be able to in feature length films. for example one of the short films i found as part of my intial research was done with inament objects for charecters. it was really interesting and clever but i could not see someone pitching this to a prodcutions company to make this as a feature length film.

Types of Shortfilm Short Film

unlike feature length films, shortfilms come in many forms. this is due to the marketing approach being targeted at very niche audiences. feature lengths come in a few main genes which are sometimes combined, for example horror, thriller, romance comedy, which can be merged to make sub genres such as rom-com( romantic-comedy), spoofs (usually comedic horrors) shortfilms on the other hand are specifically trgeted at small groups of people which is why the snese of originality comes inthese include films with specific lingo such as mandem on the wall which is targeted at 'ghetto youth of london.

styles of which shortfilms come in can vary also for example a shortfilm could be a minature featurelength film, a music video, an online series and various others.

the picture above is a music video for one of drakes songs which was made to be like a mini feature length action thriller film. this is also classified as a shortfilm althought other musci videos which dont have a specific storyline can also be classified as shortfilms too.

other aspects that help us to distinguish feature length from short films include:

made by amateurs- usually used as a way of getting themsleves known in the film industry. a good example would be Destiny Ekaragha. she made loads of shorts and then eventually was able to make a feature length.
shorts are rarely screened, they are usually stremed via various online platforms such as youtube and vimeo
they usually have smaller casts in comparison to feature lengths, The Conspiracy only had one human charecter!
short films are aimed at niche audiences.

diary of a badman was an online series with fictional charceterers making fun of asian steretypes from the perspective of a childnoticing the differences in a pakistani upbring and a brittish upbringing.

mandem on the wall was an online fly on the wall series similar to diary of a badman which looked at the common sterotypes of young brittish youth. this was targeted at a niche audience however not the same niche audience as diary of a badman.